Producer Kevin Feige Talks IRON MAN 3, How It Relates to THE AVENGERS, The Mandarin, Iron Patriot, and More

In addition to recent comments regarding the seriousness ofIron Man 3, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige also had plenty more to say about the film. Speaking to Empire Magazine about Iron Man 3‘s relationship to The Avengers, Feige says the end of that movie has shaken Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) confidence. “By the end of Avengers, when a portal is opened up in Manhattan and he’s met Thor and The Hulk and the Chitauri are coming down on him,” says Feige, “he realizes that he doesn’t know everything; we think that has had an effect on his psyche, and then his world is blown out from underneath him.”

Hit the jump for what Feige had to say about any cameos in Iron Man 3, adapting the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), why Rhodey (Don Cheadle) is wearing the Iron Patriot armor, and more. Iron Man 3 opens in 3D on May 3, 2013.

“Iron Man 3 doesn’t feature any of the other Avengers, or Nick Fury showing up, or any of those world-blending conceits that the Phase One films had. You have to keep in mind that Iron Man 3 had been in the works for almost a year, year and a half before The Avengers was released. We’re sticking to the vision for these films, and showing once again that these characters are just as interesting alone as they are together.”

While I can understand that Feige wants to keep the focus on the main characters, I would be surprised if we didn’t at least see someone like Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) stop by. And of course, there’s always the post-credits scene to consider.

Moving on to the supporting characters, Feige talked about the challenges in bringing the Mandarin to the screen:

Early – and very late – drafts of Iron Man 1 featured The Mandarin as a villain. The Mandarin is his most famous foe in the comics mainly because he’s been around the longest. If you look, there’s not necessarily a definitive Mandarin storyline in the comics. So it was really about having an idea. In terms of the Fu Manchu stereotyping that was involved, we never had any interest in that. He’s relentless. Assuming that he’s the one responsible for what happens to Tony’s house, no other villain has been able to strike that fast and that hard at one of our heroes. He’s very much about believing that the world needs to learn, and he wants to bend the world to his vision.

I’m curious to see if they’ll tie in the “Ten Rings” mentions from the past two Iron Man movies, or if they’ll simply let those stand as fun little nods to fans of the comics.

As for the Iron Patriot armor we’ve seen, that apparently belongs to Lt. Col. James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes. So why is he wearing it?

The notion in the movie is that a red, white and blue suit is a bold statement, and it’s meant to be. With Rhodey, he’s very much the foil to Tony’s eccentricities, and in this one you get to see this and be reminded of the trust and friendship between them in that great Shane Black buddy-cop fashion.

Until this moment, I forgot how well Shane Black writes buddy comedies. Somehow, I’m even more excited for Iron Man 3.

Finally, Feige commented on Robert Downey Jr.’s on-set injury:

Robert is very gung-ho about doing his own stunts, but he’s also very safety conscious and aware of his limitations. He wasn’t even attempting to do anything above or beyond what would be considered safe – it was just a wire-assisted leap from one platform to another, and he came down in the wrong position on that ankle. It was a good old fashioned accident. The silver lining was that Shane started to work on the cut and continued to work on the script, and hone and refine the movie itself.